1975 Plastic fantastic aka Corvette

[mlcraven]

Yeah, very nice job. Like a lot...

Do you have any idea what a shop would charge for fabrication and installation of something similar? I've been thinking about a simple 4-pt roll bar with cross bar and and harnesses in the El Camino.

[SuperBuickGuy]

If you lay it out yourself, probably 4 hours labor (if they weld it), and a couple hundred in material - $500 give or take $100

If you drop the car off with a full interior, probably a couple days labor so $1200-2500

[Bob Holmes]

I think that's a very accurate assessment.

I've seen folks make plywood templates in order to make accurate rollbar bends. Biggest problem with that is that its kind of hard to do anything that isn't in a single plane.

[Scott Liggett]

More roll cage

First, make the angles the same... weld to table, heat bend, straighten by hand


cut and fit a spreader bar


test fit and make the rear braces (bolt to the seat belt anchors and weld to the frame)


Paint


I'll weld it in tomorrow - maybe even get the carpet in and the seats

That's it?! A lousy four point roll bar?! You need a twelve point with a funny car cage to climb around.

[mlcraven]

If you lay it out yourself, probably 4 hours labor (if they weld it), and a couple hundred in material - $500 give or take $100

If you drop the car off with a full interior, probably a couple days labor so $1200-2500

Many thanks for that. Did a little i-net research and I see where a number of reputable companies have pre-bent weld-yourself kits (mild steel and chrome moly options) for popular body styles. Prices start under $500 (more for moly). Factor in the interior removal, installation, etc, and it starts to add up. But still something to consider for occasional competition vehicles, even slower ones.

[SuperBuickGuy]

In my case, I plan on selling this car as a track car, AND the seat belts were completely rusted and shot - which cost at least 600 to replace. Those things made the idea of putting in a harness rather then a belt more attractive. I've also lived with harnesses in my Buick and they really weren't that much of a PITA.

With all that said, I looked for a pre-bent cage and found 1 - which still required a bunch of welding, notching, and fitting plus shipping. Shipping alone (~120) cost more than the material I bought by twice. Then there was the cost of the cage in addition to it....

.... and I can now say I did it myself, and there is value in that as well.


maybe get a bender?

[SuperBuickGuy]

now to put the interior back together

[langleylad]

are all Corvette ( of that era ) seat backs that thin ?

[Scott Liggett]

are all Corvette ( of that era ) seat backs that thin ?

Yep. I think the 1980 and later got thicker. I seem to remember the silver anniv edition having much thicker seat backs.

[chevy3100truck]

Are harnesses legal on the street in WA? They definitely are not in Canada (although I had a cop tell me that he understood they worked better, the issue is they are not approved by DOT and therefore not legal to use...)

[SuperBuickGuy]

legal? probably not, would a cop ever ticket because of it? very unlikely - since the law they'd enforce is federal law, not state law. Same with cats, this car is missing them, fed law says they're supposed to be there - but again, it's a federal law and it's a rare case when a state cop would go through the hassle of citing. As for the State, the law simply says you have to have whatever seat belts that are in the vehicle, on and your car must have the seat belts it came with. Everyone hates losing a case, and whether a judge would side with the officer on this one (arguing that more, wider, certified seat belts are a violation of hte law) - the law is the minimum that is required, even in Canada, you could argue that you've gone beyond what is required, therefore you satisfy the law.... of course, that last bit presumes you're not using chinese seat belts which have no certification. Or, you could argue that the older seat belts were beyond their service life and you had no other certified options since the replacement belts are not certified by anyone.

What is interesting (to me) in that vein, I hate wearing the should harnesses, so I leave them off - and if cop wanted to, could cite me for improper seat belt use.... though I rarely get stopped for anything where a cop is looking for violations to throw the book at me... so it's not been a problem.

[Deaf Bob]

My dad and his brother in their silly old man way, protested wearing seatbelts by sticking them under their legs... One cop was wise to unk and gave him a ticket for $190... Me, getting a chance to throw a quote at him... " wasn't very smart wasn't it?". He did not like it said back to him!

Same deal with Oregon's "Scrap hauler's Certificate" It s a class C misdemeanor.. It has the words "State Police" on it..
I was chatting with a city cop and he flipped off the form when I asked about it.. Guess it is the "selective" enforcement?

My flatbed has the stock seatbelts removed and use belts on the buckets I installed.. Laps only. Shoulder belts now hang my jumper cables

[SuperBuickGuy]

I played "stump the cop" about seat belts*, and got out of a ticket; but then went and looked up the rules and that prior post is the result of that study.


* Was pulled over by a city cop for "squealing my tires", I explained that it was a normal thing for a car with a spool to squeal the tires around a corner (turns out she was pulling me over for something that happened days before - really)... anyway, as that avenue of ticket had no chance, she started fishing for violations on my Buick (it was in primer, no back window, missing most chrome, in short, a hooptie) and she spotted that I wasn't wearing a seat belt, I responded they were options in Skylarks and I didn't have to have them. In Washington they have 15 minutes to do whatever they are going to do for a moving violation traffic stop, and her time ran out. So she let me go "with a warning".... had I realized what squealing she was talking about at the time, I'd have reported her to the DA as you can't ticket someone for something that happened days before... anyway, I learned the seat belt rules when I got home.

[SuperBuickGuy]

back to work

My first thought today was to fix the rear differential cover.

see the missing tab?

I was given another cover with the purchase of the car, never looked at it closely until today



See the heli-coils? While I'm relatively certain that the heli-coils "should" be okay - it locates the spring, and really has no load on it; I'm not going to use it. The broken one has 3 bolts holding the spring in place, and when it heat cycles, it's not going to break; however, the heli-coils are dissimilar metals so I don't trust them - plus, if they did pop out, the spring would be free to depart the car - not a good thing at all... so I'll order another cover (~50.00) before I take the entire back end out of the car (have to lower the differential to get the cover off).

so on to other stuff

This lower arm was bent

now it's not


There were holes in the decklid for a luggage rack (seriously? a luggage rack?)....
now there's not


And I'm still not sure whether the transmission leak is the pan gasket or the fill tube - so I went ahead and pressure washed the underneath of the car (great way to turn a pasty white guy into a zebra)



and I continued working on the interior getting the carpet glued down..... but no pictures... sorry

[mlcraven]

The underside cleaned up nicely...not always the case but I think that as a general rule it says a lot about overall condition.